Civil Service Fast Stream Reviews

- Management (Civil Service Resourcing) is abysmal. Pastoral care is non-existent and there is a culture of shutting down any hint of criticism or problems that occur. The attitude is that Fast Streamers should be able to deal with any problem themselves and use it as an opportunity to demonstrate their resilience. - The Fast Stream often market or promise certain opportunities which do not follow through e.g. challenging postings, working in policy, working in the heart of Government, exposure to senior officials, etc. Fast Streamers are given no choice in practice when it comes to postings. A Fast Streamer with a preference for (and perhaps even advanced post-graduate qualifications in counter-terrorism) could be placed in healthcare roles for their entire Fast Stream career despite the promise of preference and variety. - Fast Streamers (including genralists) are being increasingly shoe-horned into certain subject areas (e.g. social care, infrastructure, pensions policy) where they have little interest. The Fast Stream cluster model is so broad and fails to account for specific preferences. - Generalists are promised a variety of roles but in practice, roles are matched via a tick-box paper system. As a result, Fast Streamers can repeat roles and not cover any of their development needs. - The quality of postings can vary tremendously. Whilst some postings are challenging and stretching, a large majority do not put Fast Streamers to use resulting in Fast Streamers who spend 6 +months twiddling their thumbs. Again, management are not interested in hearing about situations such as this. - The Fast Stream has a dropout rate of over 75% for most streams and there is a massive retention problem as most Fast Streamers leave for higher paid, more interesting work in the private sector, find a civil service role they are actually interested in, or apply for grade 7 roles early. It is rare to find an ex-Fast Streamer who has actually completed the scheme.

If you get put in a placement you hate they won't move you unless it looks like you won't meet your objectives, aka their outcome. Massive disparity between quality and challenge offered in placements. Badly underpaid compared to those in similar posts as you but not on the FS.